The present invention relates to display racks for use in stores. The rack is particularly well-suited for the display and merchandising of magazines and other articles of similar shape.
Point of sale displays at checkout counters of grocery stores, drug stores, and the like have been found to be particularly effective in inducing sales. Accordingly, to the extent that a magazine publisher can convince retailers to provide his magazines for sale in a conspicuous location such as on a checkout counter or in adjacent display racks, the publisher will increase the likelihood of sales of his magazines by the retailer. But display space in retail stores is often scarce, and retailers prefer to use such space as efficiently as possible. The space can take many forms, including counter space, display rack space and the like. As a result it is important to publishers to be able to provide to retailers a merchandising package for the magazines which can be put to use according to the retailer's available display space.
It is known to provide countertop display racks for merchandise, such as shown by U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,997,310 to Roege; 2,765,906 to Rossom and 4,116,330 to Ellis. It is also known to provide display racks which can be hung from two vertically spaced-apart horizontal rails, as shown by U.S. Pat. No. 3,995,744 to Metcalf. However, heretofore such display racks were committed to use as displays either on countertops or on horizontal rails and were not interchangeable.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for an inexpensive, reliable, attractive and versatile rack for displaying magazines or the like on a countertop or on a pair of vertically spaced-apart horizontal rails.